Programa Catalisador do Brasil/Planejamento 2012-2013/Education Program/Job Positions/Outreach

Statement of Purpose

The Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) is looking for one contractor to work on the Education Program in Brazil to outreach universities, experts and partners and build capacity of new contributors. The Outreach Contractor will support the Program Coordinator in building the network of the program in the country. For further information on the Brazil Education Program Coordinator goals, see here.

Background Information

In 2012, the Wikimedia Foundation executed an experimental pilot project Wikipédia na Universidade to work with university professors to engage students in the classroom with Wikipedia assignments, whose main goal is to improve the Portuguese Wikipedia quality. Professors from several Universities throughout Brazil participated of the program with support provided by Wikimedia Foundation and the community. The Foundation provided support in the form of instructional materials, such as sample lesson plans, the contact with Wikimedia community members and ambassadors.

Following the completion of some successful cases in the pilot in the first and second semesters of 2012, and from the experience of some professors who worked independently in 2011, we have begun supporting Wikipedia-editing in university classrooms and started new pilots in 2013, experimenting different approaches, such as inviting experts to join WikiProjects and partnering with translation courses. Some courses have already sprung up which have demonstrated the great potential for such a program, and we want to more actively support those existing courses while encouraging new courses to also help strengthen the Education Program in Brazil. A future expansion will be based on a thourough analysis of what worked in the past and what did not; this analysis will lay the groundwork by mid-2013. Ours goals are to improve the quality of articles in Portuguese and to bring new editors to the encyclopedia.

One of our priorities is to expand the Education Program in a sustainable way, as it is a priority region for Wikimedia Foundation according to its Strategic Plan of 2010. In the year of 2012, the Wikimedia Foundation decided to narrow its focus and to convert the catalyst projects into grants. The Brazil Catalyst Program, therefore, will be led by a local organization and will be funded by the Wikimedia Foundation grants program. The new contractor is expected to work in close collaboration with such organization (yet to be defined) and with Wikimedia Foundation team.

Further information

1. The program in the Portuguese Wikipedia: http://educacao.wikimedia.org
2. General information about the program: Wikipedia Education Program
3. Terminology: Wikipedia Education Program A–Z
4. Public Policy Initiative (including links to progress reports and case studies)
5. Wikimedia Movement Strategic Plan Summary

Scope of Work

Duties of the outreach and community engagement position include, but are not limited to the following:

• Outreach events at universities and partners around the country to raise awareness of and interest in the Wikipedia Education Program and Wikimedia projects.
• Recruit and train instructors who are eager to use Wikipedia as a teaching tool in their classes and are good fits with the mission. Provide the instructors with training on how to use Wikipedia effectively in the classroom and the prerequisites for success.
• Recruit, select, train and support volunteers who are willing and able to help newcomers with their first steps on Wikipedia by serving as Campus and/or Online Ambassadors. Organize and lead Ambassador training in partnership with experienced Wikipedians in Brazil and with material-support
• Evaluate the ongoing successes and failures of the events of the Wikipedia Education Program we had so far
  • Document on wiki best practices and lessons learned from the events you participate and have participated
  • Actively communicate lessons across the Wikipedia Education Program with the Brazil team and the Wikimedia community
  • Support the coodinator to develop and track measures of success and create progress reports
• On wiki activities to support the revamp of Wikiprojects by training experts, professors and researchers interested in joining the WikiProjects of their respective areas and identifying opportunities to catalyse new WikiProjects. Work together with the coodinator and the community to maintain the project Wikipédia na Universidade page updated
• Identify problems that arise and work with the WMF team, campus ambassadors and professors to develop effective solutions together with the Brazil team and the community

Who to report

The outreach contractor will report to the Brazil Catalyst Program coordinator.

Outcome and Performance Standards

A successful consulting engagement would result in:

• Capacity building of professors, in class and online ambassadors for the program, students and partners.
• Improvement of print and online tutorial materials to be shared with the local community and the Wikimedia Foundation.
• Instructors, students and professors shall have a positive experience using Wikipedia in the classroom.
• Existing community of Portuguese editors is satisfied with the article additions in the program and are accepting of the new editing community.
• Creation of a best practices document for outreach to be shared with the local community and the Wikimedia Foundation.

Term of Contract

The contract will be for a duration of six months beginning as soon as possible.

Payments, Incentives, and Penalties

To be defined according to experience, level of education, WMF standards.

Location and Hours

Location: The position is expected to be placed either in São Paulo or Rio

Hours: 15 to 30 hours a week

Required characteristics and qualifications

• High drive and commitment to the Wikimedia mission: Deeply believes in the value of Wikimedia in the Brazilian context; exudes enthusiasm for the mission and can powerfully embody and communicate the mission
• Strong analytical skills: Ability to measure and document the outcome of past and ongoing classroom-based experiments; ability to develop recommendations for a future strategy based on the outcome of the analysis
• Open and transparent: High level of integrity and comfortable working in a highly transparent fashion; open to input and feedback; proactive, candid communicator who wants people to know what she/he is doing and isn't afraid to bring others in when things are off-track or when they need help; can handle criticism in a mature fashion
• Strong written and oral communication skills: Must be a strong communicator in Portuguese, who is able to do public speaking, communicate personally with academics and students, lead courses and events, and communicate via blogs, wikis, and email. A good written English is required, fluency in oral English is a plus.
• Understand academic setting in Brazil: Thorough understanding of the university teaching and learning environment; must be confident, engaging and adept in communication with instructors and university administrators;
• Program and time management skills: Ability to work effectively and meet deadlines even while traveling; ability manage him/herself and work alone; must follow a tight-timeline and meet goals and deadlines;
• Flexible: Must be willing to travel within Brazil to engage Wikimedia communities and conduct outreach activities; must be willing and able to flex schedule to operate within a global team, by being available for limited number of conference calls or email exchange some evenings weekly.

Process Schedule

Please submit the following documents:

• CV that highlights your understanding of Wikipedia, the university teaching and learning environment in Brazil
• A note (up to 2 pages in length) that comprises:

1. Your vision on the work with instructors, students and volunteers to achieve the goals of the project.
2. A description of your experience with outreach activities within and/or beyond the Wikimedia movement.
3. A short script for an one hour workshop about the program and Wikipedia.

Obs.: This page must be in English and may be required to be shared publicly (but announimously) with the Wikimedia Community in a further stage of the selection.

Evaluation

The submitted documents will be evaluated against the following criteria (in no specific order):

• Understanding of the mission and values of the Wikimedia Foundation;
• Understanding of the Foundation's strategic goals for increasing our community of active editors in the Global South;
• Demonstrated history of working with higher education and non-profits;
• Ability to work with Wikipedia's existing community of volunteers;
• Overall willingness and eagerness to undertake a highly complex challenge.

Points of contact for future correspondence

Deadline for submissions: 9 April 2013

Please submit your documents electronically at Jobvite.

Results

Desculpem por termos tomado tanto tempo para anunciar, mas era necessário ter os contratos devidamente redigidos e assinados. E agora já divulgamos também com seu email institucional:

Celio Costa Filho é editor da Wikipédia desde 2004 (com conta desde 2005) e um dos mais ativos em nossa comunidade. Já criou milhares de verbetes e está entre os 15 usuários mais ativos da Wikipédia em Português desde a sua criação (http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaPT.htm). Formado em linguística e história pela UNICAMP, foi professor durante anos, quando já iniciou sua experiência com a promoção do uso de Wikis em ambientes educacionais. Atualmente, é consultor da Universidade de São Paulo, organizando o uso de Wikis na Faculdade de Medicina.

Ativo há anos nas atividades da Wikimedia Brasil, o Célio é um dos precursores no uso da Wikipédia como recurso educacional (nos idos de 2009, por exemplo, desenvolveu um projeto com professores de história da Faculdade de Ouro Preto) e também no uso de projetos Wikimedia por professores do ensino médio, tanto no período em que lecionou como o exemplo recente do Colégio Peretz, destacado pela imprensa brasileira inclusive. Também já atuou como embaixador online e de campus no programa Wikipédia no ensino ao longo do último ano, conduziu atividades de formação para professores, demonstrando didática e comprometimento em suas atividades.

Estamos muito felizes de podermos contar com o conhecimento e trabalho do Célio! Como voluntário, ele já desenvolvia atividades muito importantes para o crescimento dos projetos Wikimedia e tem grande familiaridade tanto com a comunidade como com o mundo acadêmico.

O email de contato dele é celiocosta@wikimedia.org.

Dizer muito bem-vindo ao Célio é muito estranho, já que ele chegou aqui muito antes de muitos de nós. Mas, mesmo assim, bem-vindo a essa nova fase! --Oona (WMF) (talk) 21:12, 4 July 2013 (UTC)